From headphones to CarPlay, Bluetooth is essentially the standard for pairing and streaming these days. As seamless as it can be, it also makes it incredibly annoying when you want to use Bluetooth on something, and it’s unavailable. It happens more often than you’d think, especially while traveling – as most AirPlanes have not kept up with the Bluetooth wave. Plus, with more companies developing high-end Bluetooth headphones in addition to a solid wired headphone line-up, a Bluetooth headphone adapter makes for a great solution.

There are two types of Bluetooth adapters. Transmitters are the most common, and they essentially turn a non-Bluetooth device into a Bluetooth device, so you can connect with it. The other type is a receiver, which receives a Bluetooth signal from elsewhere and transmits it through a wired connection to your headphones or home stereo system. We’ll cover both types in this list, including our new tried-and-true tested favorite.

Best Bluetooth headphone adapter: Our top picks

The Qudelix 5K is a great place to start if you have wired headphones and want to turn them into Bluetooth headphones. It has quite a few features that cater directly to audiophiles. There are both 3.5mm unbalanced and 2.5mm balanced jacks. Adding to that, it also uses aptX-HD and LDAC codecs for excellent sound quality, as well as a parametric EQ that you can control through the official app. It also has a microphone for making phone calls.

There are no two ways about it; this is the best device that can perform this particular task. It’ll power even notoriously power-hungry headphones like the Sennheiser HD650s. When the battery dies or becomes low, you can connect it to a computer or smartphone via the USB-C cable and continue using it as a wired dongle.

With many strengths and few flaws, there aren’t really any reasons not to get this if you can afford it and it fits your use case. It’s overkill for some applications, but hey, sometimes overkill is okay.

The FiiO BTR7 is a premium Bluetooth receiver aimed at audiophiles. It has a lot of the same features as the Qudelix 5K, including a balanced output option, support for LDAC and aptX-HD, and support for both iOS and Android devices. With its wired options, you can also easily connect this to your car, home stereo, or PC as well. There is a mic in case you want to call a friend.

Where this excels is at being very fancy. The display screen shows you data like the music bitrate, Bluetooth codec, and remaining battery life. It’s also larger than the Qudelix, which makes it a little more difficult to fit into a pocket. In any case, it works with home stereo systems and car radios thanks to its wired options so that you can take it anywhere with you, and it’ll work fine provided that the device has USB audio pass-through.

All these nifty features come with a pretty hefty price tag. Its higher-range price tag is not for everyone, and it’s especially not worth it unless you intend to take advantage of its features. We also don’t recommend you use this for outdoor exercise as it is not the most rugged product.

The EarStudio ES100 was one of the original Bluetooth receivers that catered to audiophiles. The second generation of the product is much improved. It comes with the usual stuff in this category, like good Bluetooth codec support, an optional balanced jack, and USB-C to plug into your phone or PC when you’re not using it wirelessly. It manages to do this in a package that is 20% cheaper than the Qudelix 5K at full price.

There aren’t many hiccups with this one. The clip helps this easily attach to clothes, and it’s nice to clip this to your shirt collar if you use the integrated mic to make phone calls. The device is lightweight overall, but it feels like it’s made out of cheap plastic. Even the buttons are a little more spongy than we’d like. These are ultimately minor nitpicks from a tech blogger who’s spoiled rotten, though, so take them with a grain of salt.

The biggest benefit of this is that you get 90 per cent of the Qudelix 5K experience for about 20 per cent off the cost. These things sell for under $100 and go on sale fairly often. It’s a good third option if you’re looking to spend less money on this type of thing.

The Twelve South AirFly Pro is a simple but effective Bluetooth transmitter. It comes with an attached 3.5mm cable that you plug into whatever it is you want to listen to. From there, connect your Bluetooth headphones, and you’ll be able to hear it. This transmitter works in a variety of scenarios, such as aeroplanes, computer monitors, or even the aux adapter in your car. This works anywhere with a 3.5mm headphone jack.

It also comes with a USB-C port for quick charging and a snazzy little baggie to carry it around when it’s not connected to something. There is also only one button that you can use to turn it on and off or put it in pairing mode. It doesn’t get much easier than that. The AirFly Pro also has a secret weapon. There is a TX (transmit) and RX (receive) toggle that’ll let this thing work in both directions. You can really use it for just about any application where you need to listen to something over Bluetooth.

There is a cheaper variant that works that’ll save you $20 if you decide to go with it. However, you lose the TX/RX functionality, and that’s honestly worth the extra money. It’s a bit of a pain when you need to receive, and all you have on you is a transmitter or vice versa. So, all said, this is the better one to get.

The Aventree DG80 is a USB Bluetooth transmitter. It works exactly like you would expect, which is the best kind of tech. You plug it into your device, pair it with your Bluetooth headphones, and it’ll pipe the audio from that device to your headphones, sound bar, or whatever you have paired with it. There is no microphone on the device itself, but it does support audio going both ways so that you can talk to people on Zoom with your Bluetooth headset, provided that it has a microphone.

The drawback of this device is that it does exactly this one thing and nothing else. There are no extra buttons or functions to make it stand out from the sea of copycats on Amazon. Additionally, it uses aptX Low Latency to sync sounds as well as possible. However, if your Bluetooth device doesn’t support aptX Low Latency, you may see some delay between what you hear and what you see. Otherwise, it works well.

The Avantree C81 is essentially the same thing as the Avantree DG80 above, except it has a USB-C connector instead of the traditional USB-A. Thus, as with the other model, you get all the same features, including aptX Low Latency support, just in a slightly different configuration. It works with PC, Linux, and Mac, along with PS4, PS5, and the Nintendo Switch. The only reason it doesn’t work with Xbox is that Xbox doesn’t allow for USB audio pass-through for some reason.

The only real difference in features from the USB-A variant is this one can control both game and chat audio on game consoles independently. Thus, you can mix the two channels if your Bluetooth headset supports that feature. Some folks on older headphones or soundbars may experience some audio delay if it isn’t aptX compatible, but otherwise, this is a solid product.

The 1Mii B06 Pro is a Bluetooth receiver specifically designed for home stereo systems. It comes with a 3.5mm jack, an optical in, and a coaxial connection in the back of the device. You may need an RCA adapter for the 3.5mm headphone jack, but otherwise, this should work for nearly all home stereo systems. From there, just pair your phone and start playing music.

You can just sit this thing on top of your speakers and let it hang out there almost permanently. There’s no need to move it once you set it up. It works well for video content, provided everything that’s connected has aptX Low Latency support. Like other products, you may experience audio delays without it. This one comes in white as well as black, or you can opt for an upgraded version with a snazzy screen that you’ll probably never look at. Honestly, you probably don’t need the screen.

The Swiitech T-One is a nifty device. It features both a receiver and transmitter function, so you can swap between the two as needed. Thus, you can connect this to your car and play music with your phone or connect to your TV and use it to listen to your show through your headphones. There are several devices that can do this. This one just happens to work pretty well and is reasonably inexpensive.

It’s not a flawless product. There are multiple customer reviews that say connection quality suffers when the battery is getting lower, and one person had an issue connecting their Samsung ear buds to it. It says there’s a 4.8 rating on Amazon, but Fakespot has flagged many of those reviews as being paid promotions, so take online ratings with a grain of salt.

That said, the device does work, and the receiver and transmission function being together on the same device is handy. Just make sure to keep it charged up and keep your expectations in check.

Best Bluetooth headphone adapters: The bottom line

Fortunately, this isn’t something that a lot of people need unless they want a specific result from their Bluetooth experience. The Qudelix 5K is the way to go for audiophiles looking to listen to music on their wired headphones through Bluetooth in an era where headphone jacks are essentially extinct. The Twelve South AirFly Pro is a great adapter for traveling with its transmit and receive functionality and simple uses.

The Avantree products are also great if you just need to add Bluetooth to an existing device that doesn’t natively support it. The USB-A and USB-C versions both work well and are very easy to use. You can’t really go wrong with any of the above options, though, as long as it fits your use case.

How did I choose these best Bluetooth headphone adapters?

For the most part, using most of these products helped decide which ones to include. From there, we made sure to look at independent analysis of each item along with places like Reddit and consumer reviews to see if people actually liked using the product. We ran each product through Fakespot to ensure at least most of the reviews weren’t fake.

After that, we aimed to cover as many bases as possible. There are adapters for travel, for audiophile use, and for home use. We made sure to include both transmitters and receivers to cover as many use cases as possible. Once all of those things were taken into consideration, it was just a matter of trimming down the list to its final form.

What should you look for in a headphone adapter?

Your use case should drive your decision-making here. If you need something for travel to turn those various gadgets into Bluetooth gadgets for your wireless headphones, then you should buy something that does that. The product category is wide enough that you should be able to easily find something that caters to your specific use. These are functional items rather than fashion items, so as long as it does what you want, it’s likely a good decision.

What is a Bluetooth headphone adapter?

In short, a Bluetooth headphone adapter uses a 3.5mm jack to connect to a device that can then either transmit or receive Bluetooth signals. One example is connecting wired headphones to an adapter and then listening to music with your phone. Another example is plugging the adapter into a 3.5mm jack on another device and transmitting that audio to your Bluetooth headphones.

What is the difference between a Bluetooth transmitter and a receiver?

A Bluetooth transmitter takes a signal and transmits it to a Bluetooth device. A common example of this is plugging an adapter into your TV and then listening to your TV through your Bluetooth headphones if you are in a noisy or crowded room. The adapter transmits your TV’s audio to your Bluetooth headset. You can connect transmitters either through a 3.5mm jack or through USB, depending on what type of device you’re using. Some even have connections for home stereos, such as coaxial connectors.

By contrast, a receiver does the opposite of a transmitter. A Bluetooth receiver will receive a Bluetooth signal from another source and then play it to a speaker attached to the device. An example of this is putting a Bluetooth adapter in your car. You connect to the adapter with your phone and play a song. Your phone sends the Bluetooth signal to the adapter, which plays the music through your car stereo via a 3.5mm jack or a USB port.